American Tower (NYSE:AMT) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of American Tower (NYSE:AMT) in a research report report published on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating and a $250.00 price target on the real estate investment trust’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on AMT. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on American Tower from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. JMP Securities assumed coverage on shares of American Tower in a report on Monday, January 27th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $225.00 target price on the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of American Tower to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of American Tower from $236.00 to $220.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of American Tower from $214.00 to $223.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $232.07.

American Tower Stock Performance

Shares of AMT opened at $219.44 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $200.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $204.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.27. American Tower has a 52 week low of $170.46 and a 52 week high of $243.56. The stock has a market cap of $102.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 92.59, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.85.

American Tower (NYSE:AMT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The real estate investment trust reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.83. The company had revenue of $2.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion. American Tower had a net margin of 10.05% and a return on equity of 22.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.29 EPS. On average, analysts expect that American Tower will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.

American Tower Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 11th will be issued a $1.70 dividend. This is a boost from American Tower’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.62. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 11th. This represents a $6.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.10%. American Tower’s payout ratio is 141.37%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Rodney M. Smith sold 16,567 shares of American Tower stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.10, for a total transaction of $3,000,283.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,792 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,371,631.20. The trade was a 20.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of American Tower

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Verition Fund Management LLC boosted its holdings in American Tower by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 20,402 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock valued at $4,745,000 after acquiring an additional 1,245 shares during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in shares of American Tower during the third quarter worth $2,484,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of American Tower during the third quarter valued at $2,329,000. Ascent Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of American Tower by 4.5% in the third quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 10,587 shares of the real estate investment trust’s stock worth $2,462,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Concentric Capital Strategies LP purchased a new position in American Tower in the 3rd quarter worth about $791,000. 92.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

American Tower Company Profile

American Tower, one of the largest global REITs, is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of over 224,000 communications sites and a highly interconnected footprint of U.S. data center facilities.